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Good Wednesday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the role of philanthropy in addressing the soaring murder rate in Arab Israeli society, and report on J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami’s appointment to the board of trustees of Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Two opinion pieces, one by David Brog and the second by Marnie Black and Mark Mandell, respond to Bret Stephens’ “State of World Jewry” address from different angles: Brog hones in on who organizations focused on antisemitism and pro-Israel advocacy are actually trying to reach; and Black and Mandell highlight the need for “reputation repair” to strengthen the Jewish community’s security from without even as we strengthen Jewish identity from within. Also in this issue: Aiden Hunegs, Yariv Ben-Ari and Linda Frum.

Last night, Saleh Jabr, 30, was shot to death in the northern Israeli town of Kafr Kanna. The killing represents the 38th homicide within Israel’s Arab community since the start of the new year, 40 days ago. It came after a day-long national protest against the record-high and still rising levels of crime and violence within Arab Israeli society.

Throughout the day yesterday, thousands of Arab Israelis and Jewish supporters held demonstrations across the country — blocking highways, protesting outside government offices and keeping businesses closed — as they called for the Israel Police and the government to address the rampant violence and unchecked aggression by criminal organizations, which nonprofit leaders say are corrupting all of Arab Israeli society. 

Levels of violent crime and homicides in Arab Israeli communities have long outpaced those of Jewish ones, but in recent years — particularly under the current Israeli government and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — they have increased dramatically. Until 2015, there were four murders in the Arab community for every one in the Jewish community, according to the Taub Center think tank; in 2024, there were 14. 

Seeing the rise in homicides and other violent crimes, in late 2023, a group of philanthropic organizations and foundations from Israel, the United States and elsewhere came together to launch the Funding Collaborative Focusing on Crime and Violence in Arab Society. Talia Horev, the former director of the Forum of Foundations in Israel, was tapped to serve as the collaborative’s coordinator, spearheading efforts to identify how philanthropy could play a role. 

“Philanthropy is not big money,” Horev told eJewishPhilanthropy last week. “But it comes in places where it can make a difference, can make an impact and develop certain models that can make a difference. And this is the time to be there because if this is not stopped, it's a ticking time bomb. It's terrible, it's out of control. There are hundreds of thousands of weapons in Arab society. Hundreds of thousands.”

While there is growing awareness of the severity of the issue in Israel, Arab Israeli crime prevention has not historically been a top priority for Jewish funders, save for those organizations that are already focused on so-called “shared society” initiatives, who more readily understood the detrimental impact of crime on their efforts, Horev said. 

One Arab Israeli nonprofit leader, who spoke to eJP on the condition of anonymity out of safety fears, said that the lure of money from criminal enterprises can pull Arab Israeli teenagers out of school, undermining education initiatives. Criminal gangs can threaten the therapists and social workers helping victims, preventing welfare and family violence prevention programs from succeeding. In some cases, she added, Arab criminal gangs demand a “cut” of government tenders for public programs as part of a protection racket. “It’s complicated, isn’t it?” she said. 

When the funding collaborative first launched, Horev said that she believed that the issue of crime and violence in Arab Israeli society was too big and too complicated for philanthropy and civil society to address, but an early trip to the United States changed her mind. “We thought, ‘There isn't much civil society can do because it's the government’s and the police’s job,” she said. “We learned in the States that there's a lot that civil society can do. And that was transformative for us. That affected our whole strategy.” 

The main takeaway was that civil society does not need to solve the entire issue on its own, but can have an outsized impact by focusing on the core population that is involved: young men, who are overwhelmingly the people doing the shooting and the people getting shot. By focusing just on teenage boys and young adult men, the number of people involved drops from roughly 2 million total Arab Israelis to tens of thousands — a far more manageable sum, Horev said.

In the coming months, eJP will be reporting more on the ways that Israeli civil society, supported in large part by Jewish funders, as well as Arab philanthropy, is working to bring down the soaring crime rate. 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, has been elected as a new trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a leading philanthropic backer of anti-Israel causes, the foundation announced this week. In joining the board, Ben-Ami is drawing closer to a foundation that has long been a top contributor to J Street, a progressive Israel advocacy group that has recently sought to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with the war in Gaza, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Philanthropy and policy: But the foundation’s approach to philanthropy has not always been comfortably aligned with J Street’s mission, which is officially opposed to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement seeking to isolate Israel. For its part, RBF has provided funding to a range of pro-BDS groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Palestine Legal. Such giving came under scrutiny amid a surge of anti-Israel protests that arose in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks — particularly as JVP emerged as a leading organizer of some demonstrations.

Read the full story here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.

Bret Stephens’ proposal in his recent “State of World Jewry” address — that we should reroute the resources going toward fighting antisemitism and improving pro-Israel advocacy toward bolstering Jewish identity instead — is a tempting one, writes David Brog, executive director of Maccabee Task Force, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Pushing back against the lies and lunacy of the current debate is difficult and often discouraging work. How good it would feel to drop the burden and raise a middle finger to the haters and everyone who’s stupid enough to listen to them.” 

What he’s overlooking: “No serious Jewish leader has ever focused on persuading the haters. Stephens is absolutely right about this group. It was not facts or logic that led them to loathe us, and facts and logic are therefore powerless to change their hearts. Any time or money spent trying to reach them is not ‘mostly’ wasted — it’s completely wasted. That’s exactly why Jewish and Israel advocacy efforts have always focused on the second group: the vast middle who are neither confirmed enemy nor committed friend. To the extent this group is critical of Israel or Jews, it almost always stems from ‘missing or inaccurate information.’ When you educate them, you can and do change them.”

Read the full piece here.

“‘Reputation repair’ is often mischaracterized as an effort to make Jews more appealing. That framing misunderstands the stakes,” write Nagen Project chief marketing officer Marnie Black and board member Mark Mandell in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “This work is not about likability; it is about restoring perceived moral character, because moral character determines whether good faith is granted, narratives are believed and coalitions hold.” 

We need to level up: “Antisemitism today is not simply historical residue drifting through culture. It is actively reinforced — and often strategically engineered — through organized activism, ideological ecosystems and coordinated campaigns… The approach we are suggesting today differs fundamentally from the reputational efforts of the past. It is grounded in empirical research into how subconscious associations form and shift over time, drawing on behavioral science and brand-strength methodologies used to rehabilitate damaged global institutions.”

Read the full piece here.

Helping No One: In Haaretz, Israeli academic Paul Weisko reflects on the loss to science resulting from anti-Israel boycotts like the one that cost him a position at an Arctic research center. “Blanket exclusions based on nationality weaken transnational knowledge production. They do not build coalitions for peace; they fracture them. And they do not improve understanding of complex regions like the Arctic — they impoverish it. The Arctic Centre's decision reflects a troubling trend: the substitution of moral posturing for academic judgment. When institutions begin screening passports rather than research agendas, everyone loses. Scholarship becomes narrower, echo chambers deepen, and precisely the kinds of cross-regional insights needed to address climate change and geopolitical instability are pushed aside.” [Haaretz]

All Aboard: In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nathan Diamant and Sydney Altfield encourage governors who haven’t done so already to opt into a federal education tax credit program for their state, specifically calling for Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro to lead the way for his fellow Democrats. “The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program allows taxpayers to claim a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). The amount of money an SGO can raise through these donations is unlimited. Some SGOs might raise a few hundred thousand dollars; others might raise tens of millions. … Given the scale of funds that can be raised by SGOs, this is truly an opportunity for revolutionizing American K-12 education.” [PittsburghPost-Gazette]

Looking Ahead: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Maria De La Cruz shares the impact of grassroots mobilization across the country in response to ICE operations in Minneapolis, and that funders should expect to step up. “This mobilization is making a difference on the ground: stabilizing families, supporting community organizations, and offering a measure of hope in an otherwise terrifying moment. History tells us that this surge of attention and generosity will probably not last. And while crisis response is necessary, long-term change does not happen at the height of a crisis. It happens before and especially afterwards. That’s where philanthropy needs to be looking, now.” [SSIR]

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A Knesset Health Committee discussion yesterday revealed that the Israeli Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Department employs one therapist for every 850 combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder in light of a personnel shortage…

Republican lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee urged their Democratic colleagues on Tuesday to work with them on legislation to update the Internal Revenue Service’s 990 forms used by tax-exempt organizations to include disclosures for donations from foreign actors, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…

Paramount is making additional offers to Warner Bros. Discovery in its hostile takeover bid, including paying the $2.8 billion fee Warner Bros would owe Netflix if it were to terminate its agreement in favor of moving forward with Paramount…

The New York Times looks at efforts in Syria to cater — literally — to kosher-keeping Jewish visitors as the country increasingly opens up to tourists…

NBA insider Marc Stein is reporting that a group of investors, potentially including Mark Cuban, is planning to offer to buy the controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Dr. Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont…

Team Israel unveiled its roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic yesterday, assembling a mix of major leaguers, high-level minor league players and homegrown Israeli talent as it prepares to return to baseball’s biggest international stage in March, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Candle Media sold a majority stake in ATTN: back to co-founders Matthew Segal and Jarrett Moreno, after previously acquiring the startup in 2022 for $150 million; investors in the acquisition include former Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone and Andell Holdings chair Andrew Hauptman…

Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney, Md., outside of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti yesterday, including a swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists are bastards,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

The Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey announced that the Davis Family – Jane, Mitchell, Carolyn, Patricia and Randy – has donated $5 million to the JCC Camps at Medford (N.J.), which will be renamed the Roger & Jane Davis JCC Camps at Medford in appreciation for the gift…

As a bar mitzvah project, Aiden Hunegs of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., raised $20,849 to go toward purchasing 154 EpiPens for Israeli medics…

Yariv Ben-Ari was elected the next chair of the New York branch of the Israeli-American Council (IAC)...

Linda Frum joined the board of the Canada-based Azrieli Foundation… 

COURTESY/IFCJ

Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, stands with Dr. Ofer Merin (left), the director of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and Dr. Yonatan Halevi, the hospital’s president, as they inaugurate one of two new “state-of-the-art operating rooms” today, which IFCJ donated to the hospital’s trauma center.

 The “hybrid operating rooms,” together worth $6.5 million, are among the most advanced in Israel, according to the hospital, and “significantly improve the process of treating patients with multi-system injuries, allowing for a wide array of emergency treatments in one room and at one time.” 

“In light of the large number of casualties in the war and the complexities of their injuries, there is a critical need to adapt treatment and to reinforce the medical equipment at Shaare Zedek,” Eckstein said in a statement. “We hope that with this donation, there will be many, many more miracles and success stories.” 

MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Administrator of NASA since December 2025, Jared Taylor Isaacman turns 43… 

Journalist, writer, political commentator and author of a Passover Haggadah co-written with his late wife Cokie Roberts, Steven V. Roberts turns 83… New York City-based gastroenterologist, he is a past president of American Friends of Likud, Julio Messer, M.D. turns 74… Former Knesset member for the Jewish Home, Likud and Ahi parties, Eliyahu Michael "Eli" Ben-Dahan turns 72… ProPublica’s editor-in-chief since 2013, he was previously at The New York Times for 18 years, Stephen Engelberg turns 68… Victorville, Calif., resident, Tricia Roth… Hospice and palliative care physician, Gary E. Applebaum, MD… Retired consultant, Alan Vorchheimer… Admin and special project coordinator for Jewish Renewal programs at JDC, Debbie Halali… Founder and president of RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, Scott Berkowitz… Governor of Hawaii, one of three current Jewish governors that are named Josh, Joshua B. Green turns 56… Managing principal at Baltimore-based real estate firm, Quest Management Group, Jason Reitberger turns 52… Elected as a member of the Broward County (Florida) School Board in the months following the death of her daughter at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Lori Alhadeff turns 51… Director and executive producer of the broadcast team at Salesforce, Rob Hendin… Ilana Ozernoy… Executive at City Winery, he was also a pitcher for Team Israel in qualifying for the 2020 Olympics, Shlomo Lipetz turns 47… Tight end on the NFL's Carolina Panthers for four seasons ending in 2006, Mike Seidman turns 45… Executive director of Merkos 302 at Chabad World Headquarters, Mendy Kotlarsky turns 44… Republican strategist and president of Somm Consulting, Evan Siegfried… Senior relationship manager at Bank of America’s Transformative Healthcare Group, David B. Stern… Senior program director at TELUS Digital, Michelle Zar Beecher… Manager of account management at FiscalNote, Rachel Kosberg… Assistant general manager for MLB's Baltimore Orioles, Eve Rosenbaum turns 36… M&A partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Alix Simnock… Senior associate attorney at EarthJustice and author of two books on origami, Scott Wasserman Stern… and his twin brother, senior vice president at Fight Agency, Eric Wasserman Stern, both turn 33… Forward deployed engineer at a stealth startup, CY “Joy" Neuberger Twersky… and her masterchef brother, exactly one year younger, Yisroel Neuberger...